journey down the cliffs of Lynx Island that night. It was certain, as old Ling said while he helped me get ready, that I was running a most murderous gauntlet. But in my heart I preferred it to remaining in the temple. In such times I am quite a coward if I cannot be in action. Many a man has led a rout because he could not lead a charge. As I crossed the court in the darkness the nearest sentry was standing still, listening. Ling, Li, and I stopped too. Now and again the trampling of many feet approached the wall, retiring immediately, but to return again. It was quite unintelligible to me, and I noticed the men were anxious that I be gone. I crossed to the farther wall, where all was still. The sentry without trudged by toward the corner. I sprang upon a straw-thatched roof, and climbed from it to the wall, where I lay down, looking over. Nothing was audible save the tread of the returning sentry. His head was five feet below me. I leaned farther over to add my arm's length to that of my sword. Unconscious of his peril the fool walked under me, and then sank lifeless to the ground without a groan. I fell after him and not an instant too soon. At that moment a form came quickly to the corner and, uttering a single but piercing exclamation, fled into the darkness. I, too, ran, unwittingly obeying what must have been a command, for as I ran I realized I was not alone. Here and there others were stumbling like myself over rocks and falling heavily into the ravine. I stopped once to listen, but all I heard was the sound of rolling stones started from their places by hurrying feet. But it was not my duty to inquire into the reason of this strange flight of the besiegers of the temple. My duty was to get my Cossacks at the earliest possible moment, and I ran on to the crest of the canyon where I paused to breathe before risking my life on the cliffs below. The hillside was all rocks. One by one I reached for them and slid and fell forward to the next, sometimes with good fortune, but more often evil. Now and again I paused in my flight to gain my breath, or measure the extent of my latest injury. I must have been more than half way down for I had fallen again, and I was lying quite helpless where I fell watching the lights on the yacht below me, when it was as though a volcano had burst beneath me-a dull, unearthly roar sent a million echoes ringing in the rocky canyon, and reverberating sharply among the hills beyond Wun Chow. A light, as of a descending comet, suddenly lit up the thunderheads over Lynx Island; then the duller glare of burning buildings filled the sky. The temple of Ching-ling had been blown up! As I lay there, dazed, a vast quantity of delayed explanations seemed to come to my distracted mind-explanations for all the miscellaneous phenomena which accompanied the complete triumph of the emissaries of the Chinese Prince Tuen. Then I thought of the good men-God have pity on their darkened souls-who had died beside the treasure. The treasure! What of it? I knew too well the answer. There was now no sacred sarcophagus. There was now no body of the queen to bury, though a nation was preparing for the imperial pageant, but four days off! And the dynasty-it too was doomed now-with every relative of the late queen. All this swept over me as I lay in the utter darkness on the hillside. Then, on the land breeze which came with the storm, I heard the clatter of horses' hoofs on the distant hills. The signal of flames had been given! My flying column of Cossacks was off for Keinning-with that letter of good news to Colonel Oranoff. (To be continued.) BY CHU SEOUL BOK AND VINCENT VAN MARTER BEEDE. (After the Chinese of Gai Hong See.) N the Province of Foo-Ken, County of Chung Chow, there lived a Master of Arts named Ding Lan, whose side name was Mung Ling. On the ninth day of the ninth month of his twenty-fourth year he made ready to celebrate the Festivity of Dong Goh ("Go Up"), an event dear to the scholars, who give their thoughts an upward tendency by climbing mountains and flying kites. With a small jar of wine under his arm, Ding worked his way up the mountain, the sound of the wind among the trees delighting his ears. Near the summit he sat down in the shade of a tree and poured wine. Strange to say, there arose a swirling wind which filled the air about him with dry yellow leaves. These appeared to obey an invisible master. Is a spirit passing by?" Ding asked himself. Pouring three cups of wine, he tossed them into the air. Then the leaves settled, and he dropped into a doze. There appeared to him a man clothed in dark blue, who said, bowing low: "Ding, it is kind of you to serve me these three cups of wine." May I inquire who you are?" answered Ding, much taken back. 66 Not a man," said the stranger, "but a Messenger of the Court of Hella spirit on the way to carry a letter to Sing Wong, Agent of my Supreme Ruler. Now, I am fond of wine, and when, a moment ago, I detected its fragrance, a feeling of want came over me. You have abundantly quenched my thirst, and I am grateful." "You must know everything about Hell," remarked Ding. "I have heard that in the World of the Dead Who Have Sinned there are Eighteen Departments, or Jails. Is this so? I have often desired to visit Hell. Can you take me there?" "The matter, my friend, can be arranged more readily than the picking up of a bean, for to do that you must stoop down." "Will you be sure to bring me back?" Suddenly the pair were in a sunless place crowded with people coming and going forever. In front of a large building the Man in Dark Blue said: "Wait here until I have reported to my Prince. In case I am detained by a press of business, have patience." 66 Lead on, good friend, to the Eighteen Departments," suggested the curious Ding. The pair journeyed to a place so dark and cold that Ding shivered with goose-flesh. "What do you want?" shouted a Prison Keeper to Ding. "He is my friend," said the Messenger. In the First Ward there was a man with a cow's head and the face of a horse. His expression was ferocious as he beat a condemned spirit with a scourge composed of small iron pipes four feet long. The spirit was hung from a rope, and as soon as he was beaten thoroughly from head to foot, another spirit was tied in his place. When the victims cried in anguish Cow's Head answered: "You must acknowledge that you have beaten men in the Upper World. Now it is my turn to beat you. These spirits are largely women who have maltreated their servants, and men who have secured money from defenseless persons. According to Chinese philosophy, the seat of the understanding. Others are schoolmasters who have been disturbed. cruel to their pupils. Suddenly a prisoner appeared whose hat bore magisterial buttons. His shoes were covered with tape, and a string of beads rattled about his neck. This personage was official not only in his rich clothes, but in his firm, fearless manner of walking. Cow's Head threw the mighty man to the ground, and stripped him quickly enough. He started to kick, much to the amusement of Cow's Head, who asked if he were insane. "Your impudence is big," screamed the official. "Do you know who I am? Are you trying to rob me?" Cow's Head laughed softly. "What do you take me for? I am a government official. All the people call me Your Majesty.' What law have I offended?" Cow's Head replied: "The trial court which convicted you said you offered bribes, and sold justice freely – acts worse than robbery. The Court commands me to give you eight hundred lashes. I will argue no longer. A bad official ought to be beaten harder than anybody else." So stout and soft-fleshed was the Magistrate that only a few blows caused him to yell like the Thunder God of Heaven. "I don't want to be an official any longer," he groaned. "I prefer to be known as a common robber, thereby getting less lashes." At this the other prisoners roared with laughter. Here, there, and everywhere the condemned were suspended five feet from the floor, some quiet, others moaning. To each was fastened a tag on which was written the nature of the offense, and the number of blows from two hundred to a thousand allotted. allotted. A man with a book in his hand was telling off prisoners in the order of their beating. Certain ones were led away to be changed into dogs, cats, and various beasts, others to be thrown into dungeons. On the wall behind the Roll-Call Officer Ding read: "Those who do evil must suffer for the evil done." Ding, wondering, said: "How many sinners there are, above and below!" The Messenger answered: "Within the Four Oceans, and among the Eighteen Provinces live many people, good and bad. The bad always mingle with the good. Officers of the Upper World can punish only a small number of offenders; the majority live un Woe Crimes committed in the hearts of men cannot be dealt with on earth; therefore punishment down here influences both the wicked heart and the wicked body. to all who cannot face the Justice of the Spirit! Those who sin only in their hearts go forever unpardoned. The tiger in the deep woods of the mountain may not have eaten man's flesh, but we know him to be a wild beast, just the same. The tiger's mouth may be undefiled, but in his heart is the desire for human flesh." "Well said, well said," commented Ding. In the Second Department naked people, black as coal and thin as bamboo, lay in beds on their backs or sides, held down by large stones, with hands and feet bound. "The World's Wickedness," continued Ding, "is due to evil thoughts. A busy man has no time to think of evil." "Those beds," said the Messenger, "contain people who on earth plotted wickedness while they reclined lazily. You see them. punished for fraud, forgery, and deceit thought out by their stomachs and acted upon by their hearts." "Why are others lifted in scales, their faces lacerated with knives?' 66 66 66 66 They were two-faced." Why do these drink muddy water?" A pity, a pity!' "You say it is pitiable-their present condition; the Hell God says it is hateful." In the Third Department Ding inquired: Why are these deprived of their tongues and lips?" "They have caused discord among friends by means of their diseased mouths. They spoke trickily." "Why have these lost their eyes?" "They were the proud. They did not turn their eyes upon the needy." "Why do these lack soles to their feet?" "They were kidnappers, and those who led the innocent into paths of sin.” "These have no stomachs!" "Because of what their stomachs plotted. Crimes unpunished here have been punished sufficiently in the Upper World, where sickness follows sinners all their days, or their children become bad. In Hell there is a law for every case." In the Fourth Department men were being ground in a mill. "Oh, what sin has brought about this sickening reparation?" shrieked Ding. Hatefulness of children to parents." "Fearful!" "Disobedience to parents, O Ding, is the worst sin in the world. During infancy and childhood we exhaust the heart's blood of our parents and spend their money freely. Shall we turn our backs upon them when we are grown? Even a dog knows how to bow his head and wag his tail in gratitude to his master, and a poor cow willingly serves under the yoke of her lord. Only the son treats his parents with coldness." Fifty steps farther Ding watched souls in readiness to be cut in pieces by Executioners. "These," said the Messenger, "are Buddhist priests and priestesses who have broken their vows. Because their vows were religious, their punishment is three times greater than that of ordinary men and women." "There are plenty of good priests on earth," reflected Ding. "The good ones all go to heaven, or are sent back to the Upper World, where they are placed in high positions. The baser priests are thrown into the Starving Dungeon, or transformed into brutes." Near by, there was more grinding in the mill. Executioners whipped the mill-horses unceasingly. Ding turned his face away. Later on he said: a nail. As Ding was hurrying around a corner he encountered the spirit of his sister-in-law- the wife of his older brother! She was sitting upon a rock, her feet chained, and a large nail protruding from her heart. At the sight cold sweat covered Ding's face and back. "When I "Strange!" he whispered. left the house this morning my brother's wife was in bed, and screaming with pain. Is it possible that in this short time she has died, been buried, and banished?" Ding shed large tears. "Is this your sister-in-law?" asked the Messenger. Ding nodded. Here the Prison Keeper joined in, saying: "Your sister-in-law is not dead. What you behold is merely her living soul." "How long has it been here?" questioned Ding. "About three years. Ding said, sighing deeply: "I perceive why my sister has had for three years a pain in the region of her heart. All medical skill has been exhausted, and great sums of money have been spent in prayers and charms, without any improvement in her "I notice many women. Their disposi- condition. How could it occur to any of us tion is proverbially mild. Why should they that she Why should they that she was being nailed through the suffer so severely?" heart? What has my sister done that she must suffer so?" "Women of the world," answered the Messenger," are reputed to have good temperaments, and virtue which is not small. As a large tree may bear withered leaves, so among women evil exists in company with virtues. The offenses most common with womankind are disobedience to husbands, undutifulness to brothers-in-law, and the stirring up of family discord." In the Fifth Department victims were being flung into blazing furnaces, and cauldrons of boiling oil. "What have these done?" asked the Master of Arts. They are big frauds," replied the Man in Dark Blue. "I will tell you," replied the Keeper. "She has always been cruel to your brother's concubine. Yes, your sister, jealous because she had no children of her own, and fearing lest the concubine, because she had a son, would become endeared to her husband, thrust a needle into the heart of the child, and he died after a day and a night. The father and mother cursed their ill luck, and thought the boy had died from taking cold. The Kitchen God reported the murder to the Supreme Ruler, who sent an order to the Hell God, who immediately arrested your sister's soul, which is now undergoing torture." "Good justice well done!" said Ding, with warmth. "Who could guess her guilt? Heaven truly has eyes. Alas that my poor little nephew is dead! But sister has atoned for her act. I pray you, take out the nail!" 66 'That," assented Ding, "is according Perhaps you imagine I do not know that on to moral principles. You are right. . . the third day of my nephew's existence you Good Messenger, it grows late; I must go.' pierced his heart with a needle." The Messenger took Ding by the hand until they had walked swiftly back to the place where they first met; and here the two parted. Ding woke up to find the wine jar upset and the wine gone. It was sundown when he picked up his legs and ran home as fast as he could. On entering the house he heard his sister-in-law cursing his brother's concubine in these words: "You do not even know how to mix my medicine! It is too strong! Do you want to kill me? So you have the upper hand in this house, have you? I know you!" Ding persuaded her to calm her passion. Replied Ho See (for this was her name): "I am in great pain! How can I bear it?' "Your suffering is no one's fault but your own," said Ding. "How, pray, have I brought it upon myself? Your brother does not look upon me as his wife, his concubine does not look upon me as her mistress, you do not look upon me as your sister. You all want to get me out of the way." Ho Sec, turning pale, tremblingly answered: "May the Thunder God strike you!" "He will not trouble me. Your conscience, the record of your deeds, will tell you I knew nothing of the murder until I visited Hell. What will my brother, who has been spending so much on, doctor's bills, say when he hears this tale?” Ho See's mouth softened as she said in a low tone, with downcast head: "I confess. You are not scaring me or lying? Now I know why my disease has resisted the skill of surgeons, and the prayers of priests, blind men, and spiritualists. Ah, Ding, why didn't you pull out the nail?” "The Keeper would not permit me. 66 Then must I suffer until death?" "Unless so said the Keeper - you change your heart and stomach. Put away wickedness, and replace it by kindness. Then possibly you may recover. Ding left Ho See with these words. Ho See lay in bed, thinking right and left. When she recalled the murder, her better "Ah soh (dear sister-in-law'), you are nature overcame her, and she said: "Other worse than dead!" 66 How?" Ding related his adventures. At their conclusion Ho See wailed: "Oh, what have I done? What have I done that they should nail me?" "You have been cold-blooded." "Have I tried to eat you up?" "No, you never have bitten me; but you murdered my nephew." Ho See pounded on the table in her rage. 66 Such an accusation!" she fumed. "Your nephew died when an infant. Every one knows it-heaven and earth know it! You are crazed with drink to accuse me of this wicked stomach! I cannot count the tears I have shed over that boy. When his name is mentioned my heart feels as though it were pricked by a thousand needles. What evidence have you? If you have none, I pray I may die immediately; that in the form of a spirit I may torture your soul!" Ding laughingly answered: "Sister, you are truly kind-hearted. women are filled with gladness when they hear of the birth of a boy. Here in my own house a child was born who would have called me 'Mother.' He would be four years old today. How happy I would be at this moment to have him run to my bedside, calling, Ama! Ama!'" 6 Ho See laid her hand on her mouth and wept quietly. She murmured with sighs and sobs: Ordering the servants to bring incense and tables, she set up in an open court an altar of sacrifice, before which she knelt. What she said no one knew. This much is certain, that she returned to bed with stomach and heart renewed. She became goodness itself, treating the concubine as a sister. If anything went wrong, she used the soft mouth and the low voice. Her disease healed without drugs, and in a short time she was completely cured. She did many good deeds, and people far and near were benefited by her kindness. When, three years later, Ho See and the concubine each gave birth to a son, they were happy. And they both died of old age. |